Council members vote 3-2 to combine library, recreation departments next year despite pleas

CHULA VISTA 
Audience members hissed when Chula Vista City Council members voted 3-2 Tuesday to consolidate the library and recreation departments in their official budget proposal for next year.

Council Member Rudy Ramirez, who introduced the proposal at a June 12 council meeting, said that by eliminating one of the existing department directors, he expects the city will save around $200,000 that it can spend on programs that directly serve residents.

Ramirez attended Tuesday’s meeting via a Skype call from Honolulu. He said the merger is “culturally necessary.”

“The goal is not to eliminate services, but to make them more relevant and available, and to do this within the fiscal constraints that we find ourselves within today,” he said. “We need to consolidate bureaucracy and expand programs.”

Mayor Cheryl Cox and Council Member Pamela Bensoussan cast the votes opposing consolidation of the departments under one director “without adding any additional personnel.”

The decision came on the heels of multiple public comments fervently opposing the proposed merger, along with a reminder from City Manager Jim Sandoval that he had studied the possibility last year and found it would not serve the city very well.

The city had a combined library and recreation department from 1998 to 2000, and during that time both services suffered, he said, which is why the city broke them apart.

He said that if the council moves forward with combining the departments, he recommended hiring an assistant director who specializes in recreation services.

Audience members rejected the concept altogether, though.

“This is not only a bad idea, it’s an old bad idea,” said Brian Young, chair of the Chula Vista Board of Library Trustees.

“As the city manager has indicated tonight and last week and a year ago, he believed it was not in the best interests of our city and its constituents to consolidate the two departments, and we agree,” said Shauna Stokes, president of the Friends of the Chula Vista Library.

Olympic Training Center Director Tracy Lamb begged the council to consider the implications of a merger on the city’s economic future and on young people, who need physical recreation more than ever because of surging obesity rates nationwide.

“You’ve made such great gains in the libraries and in your recreation programs and you have an exciting, dynamic momentum going for Chula Vista,” Lamb said. “This is not the time to run away from those services. This is a time to encourage their growth. I encourage you not to do this for the children of Chula Vista. Nobody is here to speak for them right now, and I’m trying to.”

Mark Twohey, treasurer of the Youth Sports Council, said recreation Director Buck Martin has been working, with quite a bit of success, to bring tournaments to Chula Vista, which results in business for local hotels, grocery stores and restaurants.

“I think it’s a poor idea, and our members are very upset about it,” he said.

Three other big items made it into the council’s proposed budget:

• $80,000 set aside for the council pay for outside legal counsel when necessary;

• $160,000 to fund any potential ballot measures;

• $76,000 to help the Living Coast Discovery Center pay its utility bills, in addition to the $240,000 already budgeted to support the center.